Earlier this year Harvest Power sat down with Burp Reynolds, one of the anaerobic bacteria in our digester tanks in Orlando, Florida. The following is an excerpt of the transcript.

So Burp, what does a typical day look like for you?

My motto is to go with the flow. I mostly hang out at the 6th trophic level with the more “established” bacteria. We work hard – eating, drinking, farting, burping, and reproducing each and every day, 24 hours a day.

Wow, sounds like a lot of work!

Yes, it is, and we think it’s a very efficient use of our time. We’re not like those other renewable energy sources, like the photovoltaics sunning themselves and then sleeping at night. Or wind turbines that produce electricity that then gets lost in transmission lines on its way back to civilization. That’s just a silly situation. Give me my anaerobic bacteria tank and I’m convinced my team is the best in renewable energy.

Thanks so much for all your hard work. What can we do to keep you happy?

Keep the tank temperature steady, and the pH steady, and the fats, sugars and starches pumping in. If any of those conditions change we become “slack-teria”!

What’s your favorite holiday?

Halloween, for sure. We often get an extra batch of expired candy. I think I can speak for anaerobic bacteria around the world when I say we LOVE sugar even more than almost anything in the world. Valentine’s Day is also pretty good: hello candy hearts. Every day is good, though – I like to say that we’re #1 in the #1 and #2 business.

If you had a car, what would you have on the bumper sticker?

That’s easy: “Support Bacteria: It’s the Only Culture Some People Will Ever Have”

Anything else you want the rest of the world to know?

Tell our buddies in Ontario and British Columbia hello! And keep sending us your organic waste – we’ll use it to create power, and power plants!